Ridgetop - our place and how we muddle along

[fuzzi]

Sorry. An embryo sheep is one that is like a test tube baby. Conceived and then the embryos are harvested from the donor and implanted in a less valuable ewe to grow to term, lamb out, and raise. It is a way to get more good lambs from excellent ewes without tying up the more valuable ewe to produce only 2 lambs at a time. Before this was common good rams could sire lots of lambs but a top quality ewe could only produce at most 20 to 30 lambs in her lifetime. With embryo and egg harvesting a valuable ewe can produce over 100 viable embryos and eggs. Semen from male animals in most species can be collected and frozen in a nitrogen filled tank for later use. Embryos and eggs can also be harvested from the donor female and frozen for later implanting into a host female.

This practice comes into play when you can't import live animals from a country. South African Dorpers are the best but cannot be imported to the US. Not only can the animals not be imported but neither can much of anything else be imported from South Africa to the US. The semen and frozen embryos can be imported to Australia and then imported from Australia to the US.

The embryo ram I keep talking about is one I bought from Wes Patton. Wes and Jane imported a number of Fullblood frozen embryos and semen straws from Australia that were direct genetics from South African Dorpers. They were Fullbloods. He implanted the embryos into some of his good maternal commercial ewes. This is one of them I was able to buy. At the time I had put down my favorite Lewis ram and needed another mature stud ram to bring to Texas. With the recent loss of Moyboy last month, I now have only 2 mature stud rams for my flock.

Another idiosyncrasy of Dorper/White Dorpers is their registration system. Since the Dorper/White Dorper breed is one of those "made" breeds, adding other breeds to it over the years has been allowed through a series of strict rules. However the Dorper/White Dorper Studbook has 3 books for each breed -
Fullblood - Animals tracing their direct ancestry only to animals bred and produced in South Africa. Purebred - Animals that were produced by adding other breeds into the Dorper/White Dorper genetics thrugh the improvement plan. Purebreds must have a 93% or higher Dorper blood. Most registered Purebreds in the US today are 100% since most have Fullbloods in their immediate ancestry.
Percentages - these are the recorded Dorper/White Dorper crosses that are working their way to Purebred status.

This ram is a Fullblood embryo transfer ram. His name is Patton. I name my rams after their breeders. I also have an unregistered Fullblood black head Dorper ram lamb that was fostered onto a ewe I bought from Wes. I will use that black head ram for commercials. His name is Rommel.

Probably more information than you ever wanted to know but once I get started my fingers seem to just start typing on their own . . . .

I found it interesting. Thank you.

 

[Ridgetop]

Another day ending. DS1 and I went looking for my water bath canners - you know the ones, giant black enamel metal cauldrons that fit 7 quart jars underwater. I have 3 of them. Although DS1 and I both remember seeing at least one of them here at the TX house, they must be in California! I KNOW I brought all my canning stuff out here. Pressure canners are accounted for, large bins of jelly making strainers, pickle making colanders, lids, jars, cheesecloth, etc. all here but the water bath canning kettles? Apparently they have disappeared.
Why do we need them in the moddle of winter you ask? To heat the water at the barn for the troughs that are going to freeze beginning n Wednesday. DS1 bought a spider leg burner, we filled the large propane can, but nothing to heat the water and ice in! This spring or summer when we clean out the tool shed they will be discovered. I have one in the tool shed in California which I will bring back this June. But for now we had to buy a 21 quart water bath canner. $25 at Walmart. Any other time I could find a couple of those old enamel water bath canners at a thrift store but today? No. They had 2 of the water baths and we bought one.

We went to Atwoods for some extra feed since the weather will be terrible this coming week. Atwoods had one of the enamel water bath canners - for $40! I suggested we return to Walmart and get the remaining large pot but DS1 got a large galvanized tub to try melting ice on his burner. He is worried that the zinc coating will melt off and poison the sheep if it gets too hot but says it is worth a try. I did have a thought that we could put the ice in the galvanized tub and pour the boiling water from the canner over it instead of putting it on the flame. Got the Zimectrin wormer which was expensive, and another bottle of Cydectin since I am almost out and have another 16 open and young ewes to worm along with the 5 rams. Also got some cedar shavings bedding for the doghouses, and some pine pellet bedding. They were out of the corn cob bedding. Aparently the pine pellets are also usable as fuel so they can't go near the heat lamps. LOL I will use them in the front of the ewe pen. It gets sooo wet.

When we got home, DH was going out to water the animals. He filled additional barrels and troughs in case the faucet froze. This way we can dip out water to heat for the ewes and lambs. DS1 repaired the one dog house that had been put together wrong at Atwoods (we had to buy the sample). He also put hooks on the roof so a high wind would not pull it off. I pulled ut the hay from both houses, put in half the cedar shavings in each house, fluffed the hay and returned it to the doghouses. One of them had a giant rock in it??? and the other had a larg piecef wood ad a bone - again????

DS1 and I went out and fed in the barn, then he let in the sheep. It is like a zombie attack as they race for the grain troughs! The little lambs have learned that if they can fight their way through the mamas to the creep there is grain and hay for them in there. They have to be fast though or the way is blocked by mamas. I took some grain to the rams - extra food to keep them warm this week. DS1 brought out the trough warmer and plugged it in. It did not warm up so he went to check the instructions for an on/off switch. He found out it is automatic - does not heat up until the water reaches a very low temp and auto shuts off when it warms up. Then he drove the car back to the barn and unloaded the feed, propane tank, burner, washtub and pot ready for freezing temps on Wednesday.

This morning I let the shee and lambs into the large front field. Those black buzzards were circling overhead. A couple landed and were watching the lambs. The sheep were running back and forth on thefield - some of the buzzards were swooping low at them and spooking them. Hazune was laying quietly in the other field but noticed the buzards. She got up and walked into the big field near to the buzzards. Ozel noticed her and ran out too. They looked at the buzzards standing on the ground for a couple moments then Ozel started barking at them and both she and Hazine ran at them. They flew away but the flock of 6 birds kept circling around. Hazine and Ozel sat down and watched the birds until they finally flew off. I really need to get a permit to shoot them. There were lots of them everywhere as we drov to SS. DS1 and I agreed after the past couple days of bad weather they were out hunting before the cold comes. So proud of the young dogs for being on the job.

 

[Baymule]

Preparation for the freeze! I had ice on the water this morning.

 

[Mini Horses]

Question...you have made a dead dump at back of your land. Don't you think that attacks buzzards? I would think so.

 

[Ridgetop]

Yes, I worried about that, but those buzzards are all over the area. They are nesting in the abandoned garage on the ranch next door to the north. That garage is just 200-300' from our property while the dead dump is all the way in the farthest corner of the property in the back of the hayfield, much farther away than the nesting area next door. We will go back and remove the large bones from the hayfield in another month or so before the hay really starts to grow. In California the city had dead animal pickup for any animals under 500 lbs. - call a number and they come out for the dead animals. For horses we had another local person who would come out, winch the horse onto a flatbed, and take it to the renderer. The city dead animal pickup was free - covered by taxes - but we paid $200 for the horse pickup which was a private service. Here we don't have any kind of dead animal pickup. When we put down the ewe with the torn pre pubic tendon the vet said there was a person who would pick up and remove dead animals but she charged $500. Instead we took @Bay's advice and hauled th out to the far corner of the 44 acres. The corner near the cattle ranch next door to the south. I have heard gunshots there so they must have permits to shoot them. I have to get a permit. Hanging up dead buzzards is supposed to deter the live ones. I also have a pattern to make life size dead buzzards from 3 x 4' rubber stall mats from University of Kentucky. They are supposed to be effective hanging from trees around lamb areas. I need to make a couple to hang up although I hate to sacrifice an expensive stall mat. On the other hand, it it protects my sheep and lambs it would be worth it. The mats are so thick and heavy they take power tools to cut them so will need DS1 to help me.

Something smelly has taken up living under the tackroom floor. The floor is wood and raised above the ground about 8". It sits on blocks with space where something could crawl under. It smells vaguely like a skunk, but could be an amadillo since it also smells like the smell in the tool shed where an armadillo had a burrow several years ago. That armadillo is gone now, but maybe another one has arrived in the barn now that it is outfitted with electric lights. Surprised they didn't wait for the water and indoor plumbing, but . . . . Not sure why the dogs have allowed it to get in there, but they have been barking a lot at night so who knows. They also dig around the base but then they dig holes for beds all over the place so nothing new there.

I looked up ways to get rid of skunks and armadillos from under buildings. Surprisingly you can get rid of armadillos by tossing crushed garlic cloves and handfuls of cayenne pepper under the floor. It interferes with their sense of smell. They have very poor eyesight and smell is how they find food. Skunks don't like the smell of mothballs. They will leave the premises where mothballs are placed. Just toss handfuls of those under the floor.

Our tack/feed room is about to get a giant dose of all three since we are not sure who or what is under the floor. It will smell like an old lady who cooks spicy Italian food, but better than skunk or armadillo. LOL

 

[Mini Horses]

Mothballs have worked here for groundhog & skunk. Although I did have one ghog who actually tossed the mothballs back out! . So went with cage & cantaloupe, then a shot of lead. RIP

 

[Baymule]

That’s probably an armadillo. If a skunk, the dogs would already be sprayed.

 

[fuzzi]

Mothballs have worked here for groundhog & skunk. Although I did have one ghog who actually tossed the mothballs back out! . So went with cage & cantaloupe, then a shot of lead. RIP

Lead is highly indigestible.